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India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate hinted that the fast bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy will most likely to feature in the second Test match against England, which will take place from 2-6 July at Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham. Ahead of the second Test match, while attending the media, Doeschate said that Nitish is very close to getting a game as he has been putting in the hard yards while training during the nets.
He also recalled Nitish Reddy's performance in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Nitish, who made his debut against Australia in India's last red-ball tour, has scored 298 runs in five Tests (nine innings), including a century at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne. He also picked up five wickets.
In the first Test match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025, India featured Shardul Thakur as a bowling all-rounder. However, he wasn't trusted enough with the ball by Shubman Gill as he delivered just 16 overs, taking two wickets. With the bat, he recorded scores of 1 and 4.
“He's very close to getting a game. Obviously, he was fantastic in Australia. Coming into the team and playing the way he did. We just felt, on balance, for the last game, we wanted to go with the bowling all-rounder. We thought Shardul was slightly ahead on the bowling front. We're looking at ways of rejigging the puzzle,” said Doeschate.
“So we can get a batting all-rounder in. And obviously, Nitish is our premium batting all-rounder at the moment. So I would say it's a very good chance to play this Test,” he added.
England are currently leading 1-0 in the five-Test match series as the Shubman Gill-led side lost the first Test match by five wickets. The Ben Stokes-led side has already announced their playing XI for the second Test.
England playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.
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